Medical Marijuana is Not Yet Available, but Some Doctors Are Already Recommending It

Doctors may be recommending it, but medical marijuana is not yet available in Ohio.

JO INGLES
/ OHIO PUBLIC RADIO

None of the 56 medical marijuana dispensaries planned for under the state’s new Medical Marijuana Program are operating yet. But that’s not stopping some doctors from writing recommendations for patients who can ultimately use the drug when it does become available.

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Medical Marijuana Recommendations

There are nearly 300 doctors who have been certified by the state to recommend medical marijuana for patients with 21 specific conditions. Connor Shore represents a group of eight doctors throughout the state who are already doing that.

“We are seeing patients, getting them ready so they are ready to enter the dispensaries as soon as they open in the coming months.”

The state’s medical marijuana program was supposed to be fully operational earlier this month but there was a long list of problems that kept that from happening. And there’s no timetable, at this point, for when dispensaries will open.

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Ohio’s medical marijuana program went into effect on September 8, 2016. Yet two years later, the drug hasn’t been dispensed to anyone. It was supposed to be fully operational on September 8 of this year but that’s not happening.

Weather, delays associated with ordering equipment, real estate closing delays, problems with utilities or unforeseen issues with renovation of buildings, delays with local permitting – those are some reasons the program isn’t going to be fully operational by that September 8, 2018 deadline.

The head of Ohio’s Department of Commerce says the state continues work to get its new medical marijuana program up and running. She’s still not giving an exact timeline for the program.

Department of Commerce Director Jacqueline Williams says as of Tuesday, five growers have received cultivating licenses. She expects several inspections this month to lead to about half of all of the state’s 26 growers being certified and growing medical pot.